SOMERSET'S broadband provision has been likened to a “septic tank” after it emerged that thousands of homes would miss out faster speeds.

Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) was set up to provide superfast broadband in parts of the two counties where it was not commercially viable to put in the necessary infrastructure.

The project is now in its second phase, aiming to provide 95 per cent of homes with speeds of 30Mbps or more by 2020.

But CDS has admitted that more than 11,300 households – including many with home-based businesses – will still have speeds slower than this by the end of the scheme.

Programme manager Katriona Lovelock broke the bad news at a meeting of Somerset County Council’s policies and place scrutiny committee in Taunton on Tuesday morning (June 19).

She said that phase one of the project – which had been led by BT – had exceeded its target number of properties being reached.

She claimed that more than 280,000 homes and businesses could now enjoy speeds of 24Mbps and higher – with 40 per cent choosing to sign up to the fastest speeds with their internet service provider.

Phase two of the project in Somerset is being led by Gigaclear, with the company expected to deliver superfast broadband to 21,900 properties within the county by 2020.

But this will still leave more than 11,000 premises across the county unable to enjoy superfast broadband after 2020.

Ms Lovelock said: “It is currently anticipated that there will be circa 11,300 premises remaining in Somerset which will not yet have a broadband service of 30Mbps.

“Of these, approximately 1,500 premises will be business/ dual use (business and residential). Of these, approximately 1,000 premises will have speeds of less than 15Mbps.”

More than 1,900 specific broadband installations have been carried out under the CDS voucher scheme, which is aimed at people with speeds of 2Mbps or less.

More vouchers will be made available over the summer – but they will not be available after phase two of the CDS programme ends in 2020.

Ms Lovelock said that she was looking at community-led solutions for the remaining properties, adding: “It is going to be challenging to meet the needs of these remaining premises, and it will be expensive to do so.”

Councillor Liz Leyshon queried whether some households would have always been missed out by the nature of the programme.

She said: “Is the broadband roll-out for CDS intended to be a universal provision like the Royal Mail, or is the expectation that some households and businesses will always be missed out, like some people with main sewers?

“Will some be the broadband equivalent of the septic tank?”

Councillor John Thorne went further, criticising the slow speed at which the rollout was happening.

He claimed: “As of today, no-one in Somerset has been connected by CDS under phase two – and we want to know why.

“This report is not taking us any further forward, and I’m very disappointed. Some backsides need to be kicked – this is a scandal.

“We seem to be struggling to deliver this, almost as much as England struggled to beat Tunisia last night.”

Ms Lovelock said that any scheme to improve broadband had to provide value-for-money of the taxpayer, and that work would be under way on this stage of the programme by August.

She added: “Gigaclear has taken on extra suppliers to increase capacity, and that should feed through into quicker delivery. That is the best I can offer at this time.”

Gigaclear was part of a joint venture partnership with Carillion Telent, which was providing civil engineering services to the programme.

When Carillion went into liquidation in January, Gigaclear brought into additional resources from McNicholas (part of the Kier Group) – something which, Ms Lovelock admitted, meant that the rollout “commenced more slowly than had been planned”.

Councillor Bob Filmer said that other solutions, such putting masts on church towers and spires, should not be ruled out.

He said: “You’re not going to be able to lay fibre everywhere. We need to look at all the solutions and ‘airband’ may be one of them.”

Councillor Simon Coles said that the service providers had demonstrated “an enormous amount of complacency”, upgrading all the “low-hanging fruit” and making it more expensive to reach these remaining premises.

He added: “If you’ve got a limited amount of bandwidth and everyone wants to get online at teatime, suddenly the speeds plummet.

“We have got to insist that BT et al provide the service which they are contracted to provide.”

Councillor Mike Lewis, who chaired the committee meeting, said that the remaining programme must be delivered quickly.

He said: “We are as a whole disappointed in the rollout, but appreciate that time-scales have slipped somewhat through circumstances.

“The key question is: when? When are we going to get superfast broadband? It seems at the moment we’re not able to deliver that.”

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